The Dawn in Britain (6 vols)
London: Duckworth, 1906. First Edition. First impression. Six octavo volumes. Green ribbed cloth with gilt spine titles; [4], 217 pp. + [4], 233 pp. + [4], 238 pp. + [4], 229 pp. + [4], 252 pp. + [4], 249 pp. Light internal foxing, mostly confined to prelims and endpapers; slightly heaver to v.2, which also shows some fading to boards; all six volumes tight and square without markings; Very Good.
The first printing of Doughty's astonishingly scaled – 30,000 lines! – blank-verse epic on the early history of Britain, from prehistory to the Roman conquest and conversion to Christianity. Weighing in at roughly three times the length of Paradise Lost, Doughty's poem could not have been read by many, and in fact there is some evidence that, by the time the sixth volume was finally published in early 1907, the author was on the hook to his publisher for about £50, poor sales having already forced him to sacrifice any claim to royalties.* As anachronistic as the venture must have seemed at the dawn of literary Modernism, Dawn in Britain has been cited by some critics as a literary bridge between the 19th century and the Moderns; it was clearly read by Pound (who references it, somewhat sniffily, in Canto LXXXIII), and it is known that Laura Riding worked for some time on an unpublished (and unfinished) modernization. The poem was reprinted in a single volume in 1943, and a selection of passages appeared in 1935, but one must acquire the first edition to get the work in all its six-volume glory. Though not common, the The Dawn in Britain is not a great rarity, though sets seem typically to be found wanting either in terms of completeness or condition.
*We are indebted to a Maggs Brothers catalog description, "13 Autograph Letters Signed...regarding Doughty's epic poem The Dawn in Britain," for the £50 figure.
Price: $500.00